About

Andrea Ferrari joined Takeda seven years ago as legal counsel and during these years covered various regional and functional roles with increasing responsibilities. In February 2018, he was appointed general counsel for Europe and Canada after having spent three years as head of business development and commercial law. He now leads a team of 29, based both in Zurich and across different European jurisdictions. All these changes have implied dealing with broader and new responsibilities, as well as larger teams of direct reports, ‘The different positions allowed me to work both with the European business and operations in several emerging markets, resulting in a very valuable experience’, says Ferrari. After having taken his current role as general counsel Europe and Canada, he spent the first six months realigning the team, with the goal of mirroring the Takeda business models in Europe and Canada and delivering a closer assistance to the European affiliates. Ferrari attributes his success at building an integral company function to two factors, one being the Takeda culture, which he says facilitates a ‘healthy interaction’ between business and legal, and the other is diversity: ‘The team diversity, more than 13 nationalities, is a key factor in ensuring the team delivers with high performance and with sound risk management’, says Ferrari. In the last three years he has worked on the divestment of a global respiratory portfolio in 2015, as well as the acquisition of TiGenix in 2018. Currently he is supporting the ongoing closure of the Shire’s acquisition deal.